Vineet Nayar, the former CEO of HCL, founded the Sampark Foundation, which launched the "Parivartan" teaching initiative in Punjab a few years ago, which completely changed the educational landscape in Punjab.
The Punjab government signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Nayar's NGO Sampark Foundation in 2013 to retrain teachers from class I to class V. The MOU was reviewed every year. Seven months after retiring as CEO of the IT company whose revenues grew from $1.3 billion to $4.2 billion in five years, Nayar was shifting gears as a full-time philanthropist. Nayar says, "Now I'm done with HCL and IT." "I was destined for a career in the social sector."
Parivartan, a Punjab teaching project, was Sampark's first big venture, followed by two smaller initiatives in water and agriculture education. "These will serve as proof of concept," argues Nayar. "Expansion will be considered for all three." If all goes according to plan, Sampark will spend $15 million (about Rs 90 crore) over the next five years, utilizing the Rs 134 crore Nayar gained from the sale of all his HCL Technologies shares in June 2012."
Because none of the three programs are capital-intensive in their current form, Nayar declined to say how the money will be spent, although he did say that education will receive 75% of it.
In the first phase of Parivartan, which continues till May 2014, Sampark began with 13 blocks in Patiala district, which includes 481 government schools with around 650 instructors and 50,000 students. Sampark educated and supervised teachers in the use of props to teach 96 topics in the three primary school subjects of language, math, and environmental sciences. "Using mechanical or technological equipment to interact with pupils is a brilliant notion," remarked another teacher from the Indraprastha Group of Schools. It simplifies learning and understanding. Without assistance, a child's comprehension of sound (what a teacher says) and images in books is restricted.
Government teachers were put through an eight-month, one-day-per-month training on creative teaching approaches by Sampark's experts. "We don't change the curriculum, teachers, or students," argues Nayar, "but we do provide a better way to execute learning inside the existing syllabus and infrastructure."
In support of Vineet Nayar's efforts to enhance Punjab's educational system, the Punjab government pays for teachers' travel to training centers, while Sampark pays for props, trainers, and sessions. Sampark had eight trainers on staff at the time and relied on the expertise of other companies. "Our primary role," Nayar continues, "is to give intellectual input."
